Dark Souls III’s second and last piece of DLC, The Ringed City, is right around the corner, being due for release on March 28. In anticipation, FromSoftware’s action-RPG is getting a new patch.
We – by which I mean, I – thought Dark Souls III was one of the best games of last year.
The patch will be deployed on March 24 at 14:00 GMT – that’s 15:00 CET and 19:00 PST – with servers down for maintenance on the same day from 08:00 to 10:00 GMT.
The patch adds two new PvP maps and some new PvP functionality, plus a host of bug fixes and balance tweaks. Some of those tweaks focus on the poise attribute, which was bafflingly ineffective when the game first released but was “re-enabled” in October last year.
The post, by Bandai Namco community manager Kimundi, says we’ll know soon whether the patch will allow us to pre-load the Ringed City DLC.
Highlight announcements from the patch notes are:
- Dragon Ruins and Grand Roof maps will be added to Undead Match
- When matching with passwords in Undead Match, players can now split into teams, and teams can match with different passwords
- Poise will be applied during greatlance two-handed attack, spin sweep attack, and Dark Hand’s lifedrain skill
- Most notable weapon buffs:
- Improved normal attack motion for ultra greatswords, great hammers and curved greatswords
- Decreased stamina depletion when using ultra greatswords, great hammers, great axes
- Curved greatsword attack power increased
- Shortsword attack power increased (critical hit power nerfed to remain the same)
- Notable nerfs:
- Carthus rouge bleed build-up decreased
- “Extended time” – presumably cast time – when using Gnaw, Dorhys’ Gnawing and Wrath of the Gods miracles
- Improved attack power, but decreased duration, of poison
Check the announcement on Steam for the full list of patch notes.